Teams for Mendoza

Argentina: Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino, Gonzalo Camacho, Marcelo Bosch, Felipe Contepomi (captain), Horacio Agulla, Nicolas Sanchez, Martin Landajo; Leonardo Senatore, Juan Manuel Leguizamon, Pablo Matera, Mariano Galarza, Julio Farias Cabello, Juan Figallo, Eusebio Guinazu, Marcos Ayerza. Replacements: Agustin Creevy, Nahuel Lobo, Matias Diaz, Tomas Lavanini, Benjamin Macome, Tomas Cubelli, Santiago Fernandez, Juan Imhoff. South Africa: Willie le Roux, Bjorn Basson, JJ Engelbrecht, Jean de Villiers (captain), Bryan Habana, Morne Steyn, Ruan Pienaar; Duane Vermeulen, Willem Alberts, Francois Louw, Juandre Kruger, Eben Etzebeth, Jannie du Plessis, Adriaan Strauss, Tendai Mtawarira. Replacements: Bismarck du Plessis, Gurthro Steenkamp, Coenie Oosthuizen, Flip van der Merwe, Siya Kolisi, Jano Vermaak, Pat Lambie, Jan Serfontein. Referee: Steve Walsh (Australia). Kickoff: 9.10pm. TV: SS1/SS HD 1 and M-Net Mendoza, De Villiers will in all likelihood use this painful piece of history to inspire his team to victory.

The Springboks last won in a southern hemisphere competition in 2009 in Hamilton against the All Blacks – ironically the last time they were crowned southern hemisphere champions.

It may purely be a coincidence but the Springboks stand a realistic chance of winning the competition this year after an emphatic start to the competition last week. However, they will have to do it in the same stadium where they were held to a lucky 16-16 draw by the Pumas last year.

“We have to improve with that. And the fact we haven’t won since 2009… there was a time where we were doing it on a constant basis and we have gone through a slump. That is part of the team going to the next level and evolving,” said De Villiers yesterday.

The Springboks will need to take a chapter out of their performance last week where they annihilated the Pumas in every facet of the game.

However, De Villiers cited his unhappiness at the manner in which his team started last week’s game, and it will be important to stamp their authority much, much earlier if they are to gain a dominance and not only subdue the Pumas but silence the intimidating crowd at the Estadio Malvinas Argentinas.

“I’m still not happy with the way it went in the first 10 to 15 minutes. To really stake a claim in this competition and to have a dominant performance tomorrow (today) I think we need to start well and better than last week.”

“They’ll be passionate. Their supporters will come out and they will want to see a different result. For us it is focusing on what we got right last week and doing it again.

“Once you hit the field and start off a game well and dominate the first couple of minutes then it is easy to get rid of the intimidating factor of the crowd. But once the home team get on top, the crowd can get into it and then it becomes dangerous territory,” De Villiers said.

While it will be near to impossible for the Pumas to reverse the 73-13 drubbing from last week and without the influential figures of Juan Martin Hernandez, Patricio Albacete and Juan Martin Lobbe, there is a growing feeling among Puma supporters that today’s game will just be a matter of damage control.

“There are two ways to handle it, either you accept defeat or you try and turn it around. We definitely hope that they will choose the first option and our job is to go out and try and enforce that.

“We just need to make sure that we are on point and that we come with the right attitude into the game,” added De Villiers.